If Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey” has sent you down a rabbit hole of Greek mythology and Ancient Greek literature, you are extremely not alone. (Or maybe you’ve been obsessed with classical studies since the days of Percy Jackson or Epic: The Musical.)
The film has pulled in over US$650 million globally in its first two weekends. And while there have been criticisms and discourse over the film, a lot of people have landed on the same realisation: This Homer stuff is actually really good. There’s a reason why the classics are the classics, after all!
So if the Odyssey craze has you googling “how do I study Ancient Greek” at 1 a.m., here’s your rundown — the schools, the scholars making Classics cool again, and the modern-day retellings that got us all here in the first place.
1. National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (Greece)
Shocker. The best place to study about Ancient Greece… is Greece!
If you want to study The Odyssey somewhere within an actual olive-tree’s-throw of where it was composed, this is it.
NKUA sits at #34 in the world for Classics and Ancient History in the QS World University Rankings by Subject 2026, and it’s the obvious pick if immersion is the whole point for you. You’ll be doing your readings in Athens, a city that basicallyis the syllabus.
The school teaches select programmes in English, though Greek remains the primary language for most traditional undergraduate degrees. Specific English-taught programmes include the Bachelor of Arts in Archaeology, History, and Literature of Ancient Greece.
Sapienza University welcomes thousands of international students every year who come to Rome to study or pursue research. Source: Sapienza University of Rome
2. Sapienza University of Rome (Italy)
Over in Italy is the the reigning #1 school for Classics and Ancient History, according to the 2026 QS World University Rankings.
Perhaps it’s not what most people expect walking in — but of course, Rome’s relationship with Greek antiquity runs deep, and Sapienza’s Classics department has the resources and faculty depth to match its ranking.
3. University of Oxford (UK)
You cannot talk about modern Classics without talking aboutEmily Wilson, the scholar who’s arguably done more than anyone alive to make Homer feel urgent to a 2026 audience. Wilson became the first woman to publish an English translation of “The Odyssey” in 2017, and followed it up with a translation of “The Iliad.” She is a MacArthur Fellow, Guggenheim Fellow, the whole run.
She did her undergrad in Literae Humaniores (Classical Literature and Philosophy) at Balliol College, Oxford, before going to Yale for her PhD. Oxford’s own Classics programme remains one of the most prestigious in the world, and its sub-faculty of Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies means you can trace the language and culture from Homer all the way through the Byzantine era in one place.
And here’s a fun full-circle detail: Nolan has cited Wilson’s translation as one of his references while writing “The Odyssey” screenplay.
Unfortunately, perhaps, Wilson has since droppeda scathing reviewfor the Nolan film.
4. University of Pennsylvania (US)
If you want to literally sit in a lecture hall with the person who wrotethe Odyssey translation the internet won’t stop citing, Penn is where Wilson currently chairs the Department of Classical Studies.
It took her 10years to translate “The Odyssey” and another six for “The Iliad” — so if nothing else, a class with her is a masterclass in what “trust the process” actually looks like.
Source: Harvard University via Facebook
5. Harvard University (US)
As an Ivy League school, Harvard University’s presence on this list shouldn’t be a surprise.
Harvard’s Department of the Classics is one of the most prominent in the US, and it doesn’t stop at the ancient stuff — it also houses the George Seferis Chair of Modern Greek Studies, so you can study “The Odyssey” alongside contemporary Greek literature and culture in the same department.
It’s the kind of place that treats ancient Greek not as a dead language locked in a museum case, but as a continuous, living thread.
6. Princeton University (US)
Princeton’s Classics department is consistently ranked among the top in the world, but the real standout here for anyone Odyssey-pilled specifically is theSeeger Center for Hellenic Studies, a programme dedicated to the study of the Greek world across its Ancient, Byzantine, and Modern eras.
It funds around 30 fellowships a year for students and faculty to actually go study and research in Greece, and grad students can pair a Classics PhD with additional certification in Hellenic Studies. Undergrads choose between two tracks — Classical Studies or Ancient History — so there’s room to go full philology-nerd or lean into the historical and archaeological side instead.
7. University College London (UK)
Fun fact you might already know if you read our article on Christopher Nolan: The director himself studied English Literature (not Classics) at UCL.
UCL’s own Classics department is consistently ranked among the best in the UK, and its central London location means serious proximity to the British Museum’s genuinely staggering collection of Greek antiquities — basically a free extension of your reading list, in object form.
In the Western world, study of the classics traditionally refers to the study of ancient Greek and Roman literature and their original languages, Ancient Greek and Latin. Source: Miguel Cuenca via Pexels
What does Classical Studies cover?
Just so you know, though, committing yourself to an education in classical studies isn’t just about learning Greek mythology.
Classical Studies covers the languages, literature, history, and culture of ancient Greece and Rome. It is a broad, deep field that looks at how these two old societies built the roots of Western thought.
But in any case, you don’t need to enrol anywhere to fall down this rabbit hole of Greek Mythology. But if “The Odyssey” has you actually considering a Classics degree, the paths listed above are genuinely amazing options.
Homer’s been rewritten, restaged, and remixed for thousands of years — there’s genuinely never been a cooler time to go read the source material.
